Saratoga Springs Planning Board OKs six-story Congress Street hotel

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- The Planning Board has approved the site plan for a six-story hotel on Congress Street and the project is now one vote away from a clear path to construction.

The 145-room hotel still needs the approval of the Design Review Commission, but developers have already presented to that board once before and made architectural and aesthetic improvements to their plan based on feedback from that meeting.

The hotel would be built on the site of the former Grand Union grocery store, more recently Broadway Joe's, and would extend out to Outer Zone Laser Tag.

The project would leave everything intact south of Citizen's Bank, including Purdy's Discount Wine and Liquor and the former location of Friendly's, which is set to become a Turkish restaurant.

The project would feature a restaurant with a patio on the ground floor along Congress Street. Landscaping, street trees and a new retaining wall would be installed between CVS and furthest corner of the hotel.

The developers also plan to re-open roads at the southeast and southwest corners of the property that were closed during previous development of the plaza. That will give pedestrians and vehicles routes to South Federal Street and South Franklin Street, respectively.

"I think this moved along rather nicely," Planning Board Chairman Clifford Van Wagner said. "We had some concerns, and (the developers) addressed them and addressed them well."

DCG Development representative Donald MacElroy said the developers expect construction to take about a year. Assuming the Design Review Commission approves the plans, he said they hope to start construction by early summer.